We Have the Manual

[232 words] “Then Manoah prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come again to us and teach us what we are to do with the child who will be born’” (Judges 13:8). I still remember the feeling when the hospital let us leave to take care of our first child. Talking about it later, my wife and I both thought we should have been sent with an instruction manual to know how to provide for and protect this new life. The angel of the Lord appeared to Samson’s parents and explained how special he was going to be, and that is exactly what his father asked: teach us what we are to do. Samson would be used by God, and so God had to be the One to instruct his parents on how he should be raised. They consulted the…